Confederation of Dixie

The Confederation of Dixie is a loose union of several former American states. It is bordered by the Appalachian Territory to the northeast, the People's Collective and the Industrial States of America to the north, the Protectorate of the Outer Banks to the east and the Republic of Texas and French Louisiana to the west.

History
The origins of the Confederation of Dixie go back to just before the American Civil War, when South Carolina seceded in December of 1860. Rejection of federal authority ran strong in the South at the time, and all of the 11 states that seceded and formed the Confederate States of America agreed that state authority would be held supreme to prevent the national government from growing too powerful. Although the Confederate States was defeated and its members forcibly re-admitted to the Union in 1865, the Lost Cause of the Confederacy was never forgotten. Sentiment for the old C.S.A. remained strong, and the South was where state-first movements gained much of their early strength and momentum in the 1920's.

The Union began to crumble when the 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution failed in Congress in 1920, prompting states to begin imposing their own wet and dry laws- including the deeply conservative Southern United States, where support for Prohibition ran strong. The situation worsened immeasurably with the crash of the American stock market in late 1929, and when Texas seceded in early 1930, the end had come. Other states soon followed, and in April and May of 1930, Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Mississipi, Missouri, Louisiana and Arkansas all seceded from the United States for a second time (first in Missouri's case) and joined together to form a new government.

Louisiana did not remain in the Confederacy for long. With its substantial amount of French-speaking and Catholic citizens, Louisiana was distinct from the rest of the Confederate states from the beginning. Being the wettest state in the South did not help matters, and Louisiana seceded and became a one-state independent nation in June 1932.

Recognizing that they did not have the strength to maintain full independence on their own, the three Outer Banks states folded into the Confederation in January 1931 and became a protectorate territory of the Confederacy in March 1933. They are part of Confederate territory now, but have not formally become Confederate states.

Unlike most of the other nations formed out of the former United States, the Confederacy is not a true nation in and of itself - built as it is out of those states who first rejected the Federal government in favor of the Regionalist movement, the Confederate states mostly govern themselves. The only activity maintained at federal level is the militia, the Confederate Air Force, although even this is made up of state-supplied squadrons, which have a stronger alliance to their home states than the Confederacy as a whole.

Given how much state autonomy is valued and is the functional norm within the Confederation of Dixie, states are effectively free to stay or leave as they please. Out of common cultural, political, and economic ties, the six states of the Confederation (plus Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina as a protectorate) have stayed together since the breakup of the United States of America. But when Louisiana chose to go their own way in 1932, they were not opposed in doing so.

During the events of Crimson Skies in 1938, Nathan Zachary and his crew briefly entered Confederate airspace on their way out to the Atlantic and from there to South America. They flew over part of western Virginia and subsequently North Carolina.

Militia

 * Confederate Air Force- Responsible for patrolling and defending Confederate airspace, the CAF is made up of squadrons supplied by each of the Confederate states.
 * There is no national navy or army. Each of the states handle their own military affairs on land, sea and rivers.

International Relations

 * Appalachian Territory- Regarding the three Appalachian states as rogue states with an illegal and immoral tolerance of alcohol, the Confederacy does not so much maintain any relations with the AT as simply aim to take it over. The Territory's citizens are well aware of this and are seeking alliances in case the Confederates decide to move against them in force.


 * British Empire- The Confederacy maintains a strong friendship with the British Empire, its primary trading partner, and arguably has closer ties to Britain than any of the other former parts of the United States. The greatest success of the Confederacy's relations with Britain has been securing access to the expertise and equipment of the Royal Air Force, enabling the CAF to be one of the strongest and most modern air forces in North America.
 * Empire State- Consisting entirely of former members of the old Confederate States of America, the Confederation of Dixie has little love for the collection of former staunch Unionist states calling itself the Empire State. The Confederate Air Force recently struck Manhattan, but so far the situation has not escalated to all-out war.
 * Outer Banks Protectorate- A client state of the Confederacy, the Outer Banks Protectorate remains legally independent but is protected by the Confederate Air Force and represented by the Atlanta government in foreign affairs.
 * Republic of Texas- The Confederacy and the Republic have extensive common history and most of their states were all in the former Confederate States, but have since 1930 gone their separate ways. The Texans are content to leave the Confederacy to its own ambitions provided they are allowed to do the same.

Behind the Scenes

 * The flag and name of the Confederation of Dixie is clearly based off the Confederate States of America, a short-lived unrecognized state that claimed 13 states.
 * The Confederation of Dixie is what the Confederate States of America was supposed to be: a loose union of states, effectively sovereign in every way save for some common trade laws, currency, and a national government to represent all of them internationally. In reality, the C.S.A. had a constitution that was nearly identical to that of the 1860s U.S.A., meaning the C.S. government legally possessed a similar degree of power.
 * Aside from Missouri, every single current and former member of the Confederation of Dixie was in the C.S.A. in the 1860s. Missouri never actually seceded, but had considerable pro-Confederate sentiment and was given representation in C.S. Congress. With the inclusion of the Protectorate of the Outer Banks in the COD, this second Confederacy includes 9 of the 13 states represented on the previous Confederacy's flag.
 * The COD's flag includes 8 stars.
 * The Lost Cause of the Confederacy and "Jim Crow", a series of state laws mandating racial segregation, were well in place by the time the 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution failed in U.S. Congress in 1920, beginning the end of the United States. Since this happened prior to the Crimson Skies P.O.D. in 1920, the 1930s Confederation of Dixie would still have Jim Crow in place unless canon stated otherwise.